Gems of Jainism

Author(s): Hemant Shah
Publisher: Academy of Philosophy

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Gems of Jainism
(Shraddhā) is a sadhanā, the devotion that helps attain right vision, which brings salvation. The Sanskrit term "Shraddhā” has more comprehensive meaning than English word faith. Shraddhā means sense of trust in one's higher self, in that which is more than body and which sustains body.'
But then Reason is also an excusive gift to mankind, which distinguishes him from all the other living beings. What ever that is Real and has to be accepted as existent though not directly perceived, Reason helps us. The whole Life, the whole Science, the Laws of nature and state and on Reason-on Logic. Majority of the people consider Faith higher than Reason, some consider Faith to be the spiritual development of Reason, Jainism considers both Reason and Faith equally important.
Faith has often been associated to those who are uneducated, ignorant and who have no power to think and investigate. This is misunderstanding faith as a blind baseless belief. Faith, in fact, is never well founded until it is based on experience. Realization is the basis of all trưë "faith.”
One cannot have faith without optimism. Faith and hope are inseparable. Actually all men have the elements of faith in them. Faith is absolutely necessary for spiritual growth.
The Tattreya Upanisad (chapter 3) says,”There has been a steady ascend from the inorganic to organic, from the organic to the sentient, from the sentient to the rational life. The rational has to grow into the Spiritual which is as far above the purely rational as the rational is above the purely sentient.”
Both Faith and Reason are, as we have said earlier, supplementary to each other, strong pillars, in unity, to lead an enlightened state of soul. REASON AND FAITH IN JAINISM :
The scholastic and neo-scholastic tradition in the west were always concerned with religion but not with “religion” in the abstract. The main tendencies (approaches) amongst the scholastic